Dear Sunday Letter friends,
Good morning from Denver! I’m visiting my son who lives in the Mile High City, so yes, I’m a happy momma right now. Until this weekend, I’d not seen him since Christmas. That’s hard on the soul. But that’s what happens when family is spread out and everyone’s busy with work and life. I fear this Sunday Letter will be short and sweet because, well, I’m in Colorado.
Sleestak in my Garden
Last week while spreading mulch at our little rental cottage, I noticed a katydid hiding in a stand of iris. Katydids are nocturnal, singing their familiar song of “Katydid, Katydid…” so seeing one in bright daylight seemed like a good luck charm. He posed so I could show you his incredible wings that look like veined green leaves, his yellow eyes, his round face that reminded me of a Sleestak from Land of the Lost.
And as I studied him so silent in the morning, I wondered what incredible thing Katy really did do that the whole tribe chants about every night. Or if she did it at all.
Switchgrass + Hydrangea
Speaking of our little rental cottage, I thought you’d like to see the progress we made during the week on our new side garden. If you missed the “before” picture, check it out in last week’s Sunday Letter HERE.
After a truckload of top soil and a second truckload of mulch…ย (You know someone had to spread all that top soil and mulch. Yeah, Garden Party of Two = John and me.)
Wait…
For…
It…
Day Two: After adding top soil, we plantedย switchgrass / oakleaf hydrangeas / carolina jessamine. The three galvanized rings will be future raised bed planters for veggies and herbs.
Day Three: We spread mulch, added garden soil to the planters, and played around with stepping stones.
Still a work in progress, but it’s coming along. Don’t you think?
Monarch Rescue
I’m a little obsessed with my butterfly efforts.
After a recent storm, a branch of my milkweed broke off. I inspected the broken limb to discover at least five monarch eggs on the underside of leaves. Of course, I couldn’t just toss the broken limb in the compost. Instead, I stuck the limb in a container of water near the mother milkweed plant hoping the eggs would hatch.
They did! A few days later, I noticed two tiny caterpillars! Hopefully more will survive. I’ll find out when I return from Colorado.
Luke & Laura
Last week was momentous because my niece, Taylor, moved into her dorm room at the University of Arkansas. And let me just say, dorm rooms aren’t what they once were. Not when I was a freshman. When I was a freshman, we didn’t know about matching bedding and fanciful wall decor. Other than stereos, we didn’t have much of anything in our rooms. Certainly no refrigerators or televisions. To watch our favorite show at 2:00 in the afternoon, nearly every girl in Alexander Hall (Baylor) met in the common room to follow the saga of Luke and Laura on General Hospital. LOL.
Do you remember Luke & Laura?
Do they still live in Port Charles?
Some things never change about dorm room living: a) It’s still hard to tuck a sheet into a dorm room mattress that’s shoved tight against the wall; b) Day 1 in the dorm is the cleanest the room will ever be.
School Kitchen Tip: (The School Kitchen Textbook, Mary J. Lincoln, 1917, The Care of Bedrooms)
Have a great week, Sunday Letter friends. I’m headed out to explore more of Denver today.
Grace Grits and Gardening
Farm. Food. Garden. Life.
[tweetthis]This week’s Sunday Letter features Sleestak in the garden and memories of Luke and Laura #SundayMorning #gracegrits[/tweetthis]
Musical Pairing:
Colorado, Paper Bird
I had a flash back to my little bedroom when I was a teenager. I promised myself that one day I would have a bed that wasn’t up against the wall. ( I was really proud to have my own room though.)
I did too. Making our twin beds in the “Enchanted Room” was always hard.
The yard at “the little house” is looking wonderful. Can’t wait to see it.
I’m excited about it. Of course with John going back to school this week, progress will be slower…
Gosh, I hope that you enjoy your visit. I got lucky because so far all of my tribe has stayed in the Richmond area except for a brief period when our middle child moved about 6 hours away. Following her divorce, she moved right back home, picked up the pieces of her life and took up her old job with the power company and met the love of her life. They have been living their happily ever after. In fact, they invited us over for their Sharknado party this evening, but I cannot go because I have injured my knee and will be going in for PT beginning the 27th.
Oh my, fall is almost here and I have so many things to do in the fall. I can hardly wait for those cooler days and really great open window cool fall nights.
One big transition in our family is that we had to put our old almost 12 year old Springer Spaniel down. One of the vet techs told us that his sudden attacks probably meant something like a brain tumor. After biting my husband’s already injured hand and his upper thigh. Both bites were scary and totally out of the blue, so to protect ourselves , we escorted him to the Rainbow Bridge.
We began naming our dogs after Confederate Generals a few years ago. Stonewall was the first. Next was Jubal who was named after Jubal Early who was the only Confederate General who never surrendered. The real Jubal was a lawyer who was a hero in a battle in the Shenandoah valley. Interestingly, our middle daughter bought a house in Varina, Va which was at the edge of the Malvern Hill Battlefield where the Confederate Army officers must have gathered and planned the strategy and observed the battle from her front yard
. Old Jube surely met with General Lee and others conferred that day in 1862. Anyway, when General Lee surrendered at Appomattox, General Early kept going all the way down to Texas where they continued the fight.When they surrendered in Texas, Jube crossed over into Texas. Eventually, he moved back up to Virginia and resumed his law practice. Hey, I live just outside of Richmond, Va. Richmond was the capital of the Confederacy and when we moved here in 1968, your could not throw a dead cat in any direction with hitting a sign that read “The route of Lee’s retreat”
I do so enjoy reading your Sunday letters. Please keep em coming.
Thank you so much for reading! I’m so sorry about your Springer Spaniel. That’s the worst! Yes, fall is rapidly approaching! My favorite time of year.
Perhaps there is a good thing about families being spread out across the country these days. It makes us REALLY appreciate and cherish the times we do get to spend together. There are no wasted moments. Social media helps also.
So true! And it forces us to visit new places, see knew things.
While we remain so happy to living in Arkansas, we too left one adult son in Colorado and one in Wyoming. So we make the most of visits and quick texts. But still… I visited our old dorm hallway at Ohio State last year, going inside the room of the niece of a college roommate. Much more stylish and roomy-since they crammed 4 of us in at that time and now only two! Luke, Laura and that trouble maker Scottie were our tv indulgences too. Julie
Oh, yes, Scottie. Such a love triangle LOL. I’m happy you are enjoying Arkansas but know you miss your sons. (My daughter lives in Austin.)
I hope the caterpillars make it. I agree about dorm rooms not being the same. All the ones I visited was bare!